IT has been a rollercoaster week for a group of Hampshire workers caught up in a pensions fiasco.

First hundreds of staff at APW Electronics in Chandler's Ford were told they would be eligible for government aid after losing up to 80 per cent of their nest eggs in November 2004 when the firm closed the pension scheme because of a £55m black hole in funds.

That meant victory for a long-running Daily Echo campaign but just 24 hours later the workers were told a mistake had been made and they would not be eligible after all.

However a day later, the Department of Work and Pensions performed another U-turn and said APW employees would get help from the government's Financial Assistance Scheme.

Workers will be able to reflect on those ups and downs tonight as an action group formed by the pensions fiasco victims meets at Verotech on the Solent Industrial Estate, Shamblehurst Lane, Hedge End, at 7.30pm.

Alan Beard, 60, from Colden Common, worked for APW for 17 years. He said: "I am stunned but delighted. We have gone from high to low and then back to high within 24 hours. It is just a relief for me and for the other APW people."

More than half of the 1,259 workers at APW were affected. Some members saw the value of their pensions slashed from £20,000 to £4,000.

Under the FAS, the hardest hit workers are due to receive top-ups with the longest serving employees entitled to up to 80 per cent of the original pension value.